‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ torn to smithereens: Bansal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

Pawan Kumar Bansal, former union minister and former city MP, has expressed shock over the incident of rape of a 12-year-old girl on Independence Day. He has termed the incident as shameful and disgrace to all mandated to preserve law and order.

In a statement issued here, Bansal said, the shocking news came on a day when the nation was celebrating 70th anniversary of its freedom, but it is sad and disheartening that girls in this city, which was considered to be safe, were being subjected to harassment and abuse.

He said this only exposes the callousness of the local leadership which was more concerned about getting cheap publicity on ‘non-existent achievements’.

“What is becoming of Chandigarh? ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ is being torn to smithereens. The city is on the way to earning a dubious distinction of an ‘unsafe-women’ capital. Now, when the BJP is ruling in the city and Centre, their leaders have no moral ground to applaud themselves and should accept their complete failure in ensuring the safety of women,” he said.

Bansal said it was just a week ago when the stalking case in the city had shaken the whole country and that incident was followed by another case of a scooter riding girl becoming the victim of a similar attempt and now, this incident has taken place and that too with a minor at a children’s park.

He said while the government makes tall claims of empowering women as never before, the reality was that an environment of fear prevails among women on roads, parks and even markets where cases of chain snatchings were also on the rise.

Cong delegationmeets DGP

A delegation of senior Congress leaders, led by city party president Pardeep Chhabra, met DGP Tejinder Luthra. The delegation comprised Rampal Sharma, Subash Chawla , Mohmmad Sadiq, Jatinder Bhatia, Bhupinder Bhaderi, Harphool Kalyan, Davinder Babla, Harmohinder Singh Lucky, Gurpreet Happy, Sandeep Bhardhwaj, Vinod Sharma, Chitranjan Chanchal and Ajay Joshi.

It expressed concern on the continuously deteriorating situation of law and order in the city and demanded immediate arrest of the accused in the rape case of the 12-year-old girl.

The city has witnessed the third big incident of crime against women. People have expressed their concern from across the world on the social media on the ongoing situation in the city. They demanded that beat system should be strengthened and patrolling on inner roads should be increased.